Medical officials suspect the mother of the baby became infected while traveling to Latin America during her pregnancy. Some pro-abortion groups even have been scaring women into aborting their unborn babies without knowing if they have Zika or if their unborn baby has a disability.
Advertisement
Rubio acknowledged parents faced with the severe birth defect of microcephaly in an unborn child have a very tough decision to make since the condition essentially results in a “lifetime of difficulties” for the child.
Officials took care to emphasize that the death was travel-related, and that there were no signs the disease was being carried by local mosquitoes, as is now the case in southern Florida.
This brings the count of non-travel related cases of Zika virus to 17 as of August 8. Thirteen women in the USA have given birth to babies with Zika-related birth defects; seven have lost pregnancies due to miscarriage or have aborted babies with brain damage.
During the first week of infection, Zika virus can be found in the blood and passed from an infected person to another mosquito through mosquito bites.
Scott was speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the neighborhood of Wynwood, where crews began aerial spraying on Thursday to kill virus-carrying mosquitoes.
More than 1800 cases of Zika have been reported in the United States according to federal data.
Dr. Samuel Williams-Rodriguez, Cayman’s head of public health, said in a press release, “With the rapid and ongoing transmission of the Zika virus around the world, it is not an alarming fact that local transmission has reached our shores”.
Florida Governor Rick Scott announced today that the Florida Department of Public Health (Florida Health) is investigating a case of locally transmitted Zika in Palm Beach County.
CDC has confirmed Zika is linked to birth defects.
In May, Rubio was the first Republican to co-sponsor a failed $1.9 million Obama administration proposal to fight the Zika virus.
An additional unnerving factor is the virus spreads through sexual contact or by mosquitoes. They’ve also asked people living and working in the area to remove standing water where mosquitoes can breed, and they have collected urine and blood samples to gauge how rapidly the virus spread.
Advertisement
“The Department of Health is working with the County of Kauai to take proactive steps to assess affected areas for mosquito activity, educate communities, and treat mosquito breeding sites”, said acting Kauai District Health Officer Toni Torres.
